People look over a frozen pond in Central Park on Saturday in New York City. / John Moore, Getty Images

by Kevin McCoy and Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY

by Kevin McCoy and Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY

NEW YORK - The massive Northeast storm stranded an estimated 200 motorists in their vehicles as it dumped more than 2 feet of snow on Long Island's Suffolk County, the hardest hit area in the state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.

Friday evening commuters in many cases had driven to within a few miles of their homes when the "the snow literally swallowed them up," said Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone at a Saturday afternoon news briefing at a state Department of Transportation garage in Melville after the two checked on recovery efforts.

"This is a storm unlike anything we have experienced in parts of Suffolk County," Bellone said.

The storm hit Long Island so hard - at its height dropping snow at an estimated 3 to 4 inches per hour - that firetrucks and other emergency vehicles got stuck while trying to reach stranded motorists, Bellone said.

Cuomo activated state National Guard units, which in some cases resorted to snowmobiles to aid the rescue effort, Bellone said.

"We may be in the top 10 (largest snowfalls in recent history) for Suffolk County, and maybe in the top five," said David Stark, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Upton office on eastern Long Island.

Medford, in Central Suffolk, got the most snow, with 33.5 inches reported by the National Weather Service. The weather service's local office wasn't far behind, with 30.9 inches recorded there.

The Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway, major east-west routes, remained closed to all but emergency and utility vehicles Saturday afternoon. While the expressway eventually opened, about 30 miles of the highway was to be closed again Sunday for snow removal.

Long Island Rail Road service in eastern Suffolk was also shut down. The rail line was running limited westbound service to New York City with delays.

Cuomo said the state Department of Transportation and New York counties that were spared the storm's worst were sending hundreds of snowplows, front-end loaders and other equipment to help dig out Long Island.

Complicating that effort, the Long Island Power Authority reported that more than 8,600 customers who lost power during the storm were still without electricity as of 2 p.m. Saturday. Utility trucks were having difficulty getting through drifts that in some places rose more than 3 feet high as they tried to reach downed wires, Cuomo said.

The total number of power outages for New York was down to about 4,500 by early Sunday.

Still, he said New York was spared the even-tougher punch the Northeast storm delivered to Connecticut, Massachusetts and New England. Joined by New York City, which largely escaped with a glancing blow from the storm, the state was sending plows and other emergency equipment to help New England neighbors.

By 3 p.m. Saturday, the temperature in New York City's Central Park had climbed almost back to the freezing mark. Droves of New Yorkers and visitors thronged to the park for sledding, cross-country skiing and strolling as they took advantage of the first major snowstorm in two winters.

Janet Hamilton, who lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, used her cross-country skis to traverse the park. Gauri Pradhan, another Big Apple resident, took photos of the snow-covered scenery.

"It's pretty," she said, while holding her camera and looking across the white landscape.

At a nearby coffee shop in Central Park, the line was long as many folks ordered warm coffee and hot chocolate.

Large and small dogs romped through the snow, while parents pulled kids on brightly hued sleds.

Families took in some downhill sledding. Kids - as well as parents - laughed and yelled with delight as they each slid down hills on plastic sleighs.

Outside Central Park, doormen used long brooms to clear the piled-up snow from the awnings of apartment buildings.

Along the city's East River Park promenade, runners and dog walkers took advantage of the cleared pathway and afternoon sunshine.

"We certainly avoided the worst of it," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a Saturday morning briefing.

Most mass transit in the city was running Saturday morning, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said, and some service was restored on Metro-North commuter rail lines, which had been shut down into Saturday morning. Amtrak said some trains between New York and Boston would run Sunday.

Cuomo said the latest storm, following Superstorm Sandy and other recent major weather events, had given New York emergency workers more than enough new "experience in emergency management."

"I truly hope we don't have any more experience in the coming weeks and months," Cuomo said.